I started a new part time job as a night receptionist for a car
dealership. A week after I was hired and JUST finished training, the
full time receptionist quit. Her replacement was my worst nightmare.

She was told her position title was head cashier and took it to
extremes. She told our boss I spend too much time playing internet
games, (I work from 3pm-9pm m-f and don’t have many calls after 6)
and when the director saw no problem with it she took it upon herself
to block the internet. When I came in that day I asked why it wasn’t
working correctly and she pretended she had no idea. But when she
needed it for a web program to help a customer I saw her type in the
password and BAM. Internet access. I ended up watching her type the
password a few times and figured it out.

In the meantime I found things to occupy my time before she left so
she wouldn’t realize. One day I brought a book to work and laid it on
my desk.

Boss: “You read?”
Me: “Yes. Gives me something to do when I’m not busy.”
Boss: “You just don’t look like the kind of girl who would read an
actual book.”

That’s just some of it. Also, in the 3 months we worked together she
never once got my name correct. However, I did get my revenge. I got
in good with the director and he saw how poor her work ethic was and
how she interacted with customers and coworkers. One morning I got a
phone call at 8 am asking me to come in and cover since they would be
letting her go. As she was walking out I sat down and laughed. A week
later, on payday, she called for our HR and i had answered the phone.
She thought it was a replacement and was stunned when I told her it
was me.

When I was 16, I was a waitress at a well known buffet style
restaurant. Part of my job included making sure my section of the
buffet stayed clean and full of food.

Upon cleaning my part of the buffet, I noticed a few dead flies in
the potato salad so I removed the tray and headed to the back to
empty it into the trash.

My boss saw me with an almost full try of potato salad and asked what
I was doing. When I explained, he quickly reprimanded me for being
wasteful and grabbed a spoon and proceeded to removed the dead flies
from the potato salad.

He then told me to place the tray back on the buffet. Later on, he
called me into his office to discuss what had taken place earlier on
in the day.

He told me it was completely unacceptable to toss out an entire tray
of food for a few dead flies. He then asked me to not mention his
money saving trick to the owners.

The whole situation turned my stomach so I ended up quitting shortly
after that!

My first job out of college was a lab tech at a large university. I
had two supervisors on this job, one was cool, but the other was a
crazy control freak. She had what could only be described as a
‘hazing’ ritual for new employees that lasted until they broke. I
started with another guy she bullied, yelled, name called (she called
me “a stupid little girl” once), and even hit (not me, but the other
guy) us. Nothing I did was ever right, and every mistake involved
yelling and name-calling. This lab group all had lunch together
everyday, and would horse around in the lunch room. Once this boss
decided to arm wrestle all of us (she was a tiny little woman). When
she couldn’t move my arm, she BIT me to get me to let her win (I
wasn’t even TRYING to win). After that I ate in the car. I could go
on and on with the crazy stories, like her making a mandatory salon
day for all the female employees (because she didn’t like my hair
cut), or bullying me into getting a new lunchbox because she didn’t
like how old mine looked, or trying to require that all female
employees wear high heels to work (we worked in a LAB). I quit after
my probationary period because I knew they would have fired me and I
wanted to be eligible for other university jobs in the future. That
job STILL comes open every 6 months, like clock work.

I took over a new store in a mall that was very high end. The company
was paying outragous rent and making no money, my job was to fix the
problem. I started work on the chaos and had it coming along nicely.
I scheduled an inventory, hired staff that were eager and willing to
work, and in the first month actually showed us breaking even. Soon
after we starting making loads of money and I was working with an
amazing staff. Life was good.

As part of my hiring package I was given a weeks vacation after only
6 months of employment. Payroll informed me that it was the end of
the fiscal year and they wanted to clear the books, aka take my
vacation now or lose it. I sent in the request, it was granted and I
took my week off.

On the last day of my vacation I get a call from my mom to inform me
that my grandpa, who I was very close to, has died suddenly during
the night. The funeral would be Tuesday and I needed to fly home. On
top this I had found out I was pregnant and had been waiting until my
grandpa’s upcoming birthday to tell him he was going to be a
great-grandpa for the first time.

I call my store to make sure they can cover Tuesday, I’d work the
Monday morning and be back on Wednesday to close. Then I call my
regional manager to let him know what was going on…I’m told that I
can’t have extra days off because I just was on vacation. I explain
about my grandpa, there should be a few days bereavement I could
take. I didn’t even want the three days, just one to go say my good
byes. He told me to stop being greedy and that if I wasn’t at work on
Tuesday I’d be fired. I remember saying I didn’t schedule my vacation
around his death, it was unexpected. I was told “You should think
about that next time” and the line disconnected.

I went to the funeral. I came back to my staff freaking out because
the regional manager had been in the store when they got there in the
morning to open. He had loaded up a cargo van with merchandise,
destroyed the stock room and took a lot of the payroll files and
sales records.

Later that week I got phone calls from the home office requesting
payroll records from two years previous. A very odd request but I
told them that the RM had taken them.

Soon he was back in my store to let me know that:
-I was unreliable, as I didn’t fax reports on time. He had taken the
fax machine…
-Lied to people at home office about him taking the records. They
were never seen again.
-That my being pregnant was an inconvenience. I NEVER missed work
while I was employed there and had people trained to take my place
while I was in the hospital.
-I was a slacker for trying to take advantage of my vacation over a
made up death of a relative. He had me fax home office the obituary,
but forgot that.

I was fired on the spot. He brought in a new manager that same day.
The store closed after 2 months, it turned into a dive with empty
shelves staffed with poorly dressed employees always on the phone.
The business went bankrupt 3 months after that.

It might of had something to do with a crazy as hell regional manager
who apparently schedules the deaths of his loved ones so they don’t
interfere with his vacation plans.

So I’m working in a software company (a good sized one) and we have a
new release of an existing program due out. I notice that a particular
piece of functionality is not working, when it had been before, so I
write up a problem report about it. I get an email back from one of
the lead developers that “We removed that functionality because it
isn’t used very often, and there is a workaround for it.” I wrote
back that it is used extremely often, and in my opinion, this cannot
be released without it. Back and forth this goes, bringing upper
level managers and program managers (who don’t use this program) into
the discussion. Being as this software HAS to be released by a
certain date, I get over-ruled and the software goes out without said
functionality.

Guess what the very first customer reported problem was for the
software? Guess what was the second customer reported problem? Guess
which problem was reported more often than any other? Guess which
functionality was returned in the point release?

Guess who had to leave to go to an intelligent company?

I worked for a family owned company one summer that took tourists out
for boat rides.

Once a man called up and said, “I’m Joe (last name) and I get free
boat tours!” I responded, “I’m sorry sir, I’ve been given specific
guidelines on discounts and was not informed of anybody receiving
free boat tours. I can save you a spot in the boat if you’d like and
you can work out whether or not you go on for free with the women who
sell the tickets. I’m not authorized to promise you that.” The man
replied “But I’m Joe (last name)!” The next day my boss went up to
the office and said “What the h*** is wrong with you? Joe (last name)
gets free boat tours!” Apparently I’m supposed to let strange people
on for free or get yelled at.